Thursday, June 5, 2014

Dads, could your kids be at risk for substance abuse?

Families strive to find the
best ways to raise their children to live happy, healthy and productive
lives. Parents are often concerned about whether their children will
start or are already using drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and
others, including the abuse of prescription drugs. Research supported by
the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has shown the important role that
parents play in preventing their children from starting to use drugs.

These five questions,
developed by the Child and Family Center at the University of Oregon, highlight
skills that are important in preventing the initiation and progression of drug
use among youth. For each question, there is a video clip on line at http://www.drugabuse.gov/family-checkup
that shows positive and negative examples of the skill and additional videos
and information are provided to help you practice.

Questions:

Are you able to communicate
calmly and clearly with your teenager regarding relationship problems?

Do you encourage positive
behaviors in your teenager on a daily basis?

Are you able to negotiate
emotional conflicts with your teenager and work toward a solution?

Are you able to calmly set limits
when your teenager is defiant or disrespectful? Are you able to set limits
on more serious problem behavior such as drug use, if or when it occurs?

Do you monitor your teenager to
assure that they do not spend too much unsupervised time with peers?